'O' level exams

This is the first year St Michael's school has done 'O' levels! The science teacher, Diane had pneumonia just before she was meant to get all the practicals set up, and there is no technician to help in the laboratory.

Guess what! I had a flashback to one of my previous lives, the one where I worked as a medical lab technician in NW Tanzania, and had some fun making and marking various coloured fluids and bugs. Thankfully there were no complaints, and I'm just going to have to resist the temptation to get more involved. Have to keep the bible school as my top priority...

Recovery

Last Friday I decided to go to the police station and ask for my old laptop back! Normally stolen items are kept until the case is finished, so they can be used as evidence, but they agreed I could sign them out until needed. That was a great relief, but I'm still unable to do internet because my old laptop seems to be lacking. Maybe I can get it fixed.

Meanwhile I went to a camping retreat last weekend run by the Iringa Christian Fellowship (ICF) and feel quite refreshed and restored. This last week's teaching has been fun, and I am beginning to get a feel for each class in the secondary school. The Bible school has just started again, with 10 students, and I am finding it easier to memorise names now. Not everything is new!

Hope and Anna arrived in Ngara (the opposite side of Tanzania from here) on that Sunday (28th) after a three day journey, and the family had waited for them for the funeral. That is unusual, but Hope is now the senior member of the family. They came back to Iringa yesterday (Friday) after a dramatic journey. Just as they were nearing Dodoma on Thursday the front wheel of the bus came off and it lurched to a halt, just missing a ditch. If it had rolled it might have been a different story, but as it was no one was injured. It happened mid afternoon, and as the darkness came the police took all the women and children to Dodoma for safety, leaving men and luggage with the bus (Brave men!). Fortunately later that evening mechanics managed to get the bus back on the road, so the journey continued. My two friends changed buses in Morogoro and came on to Iringa.

We had an electric storm in Iringa yesterday, and I was in the middle of an email when everything went dead, and I had to abandon it. Now at a generous friend's house updating this blogsite.

Graduation

Yesterday the fourth year students of St Michael's Secondary school graduated. They are the first intake who started in 2005 and I was there when that happened, so it was a special day for me and for them, and for Bishop Donald who came from Iringa as the Guest of Honour. This has been his dream for a long time.

Actually the students haven't done their final exams yet, but in all schools here they graduate first because after exams are completed they are free from School rules, so more difficult to control! Reminds me of Redcliffe where my MA is just about to be put to the exam board, but I graduated last year with my year group before we all went to the four corners of the globe... (try to picture a 4-cornered globe). I think we must be more difficult to contol now too.

I have some sad news as well: On Thursday Hope's father died. He'd been unwell for some time, and she had spoken to him the day before, but she and her sister Anna (Mama Kiri) are still travelling now (Sat) and will hopefully arrive tomorrow. The school staff met and asked me to accompany Hope to Iringa as they didn't want her to have to travel alone (She's secretary to the headmaster). Then I asked Bishop Donald for a lift back for the graduation ceremony.

Tz detective story

Well, what do you know? Most of my stuff has been recovered! Last Thursday one of the detectives assigned to the case found a 14 year old boy selling a laptop in the marketplace of Iringa town. There were two people involved, and both were taken to the police station. I was contacted next day by the Administrator of the school for deaf kids (SfD) where I was living, and we both went to the police station, where I identified it as my laptop. Then we all (2 detectives, 2 culprits, 2 victims) went together to my old house where the boy described how his small friend had climbed through the window to take the stuff! Then he took us to a house next to the SfD where we recovered some things (my speakers and a DVD with my name on it) .

The boy had an older brother who we then collected from school, and after a bit of reluctance, he took us back to the same house and dug out three bulging sacks from the garden. We made a circle of chairs and tipped out the contents to find the rest of my CD's and DVD's (including one with my picture on the front, made by my Redcliffe College friends, David and Grea) and lots more things, plus some sheets and curtains belonging to the SfD, taken after I moved out. The detectives listed everything, and now it's all at the police station, so I am no better off just yet, but at least there is a miracle of those kids being stopped in their tracks.

I hope that whatever happens, they have a change of life-style for the better. Thanks for your encouragement Vaiva and Susie!

struggling

Hey it's good to be back online again after a break - not because I wanted it but because I literally had a break-in around three weeks ago. The signs are (according to detective agent Lapage) that an adult taught a child how to get through a very small hole in the door where a pane of glass was broken. The hole was big enough to pass a laptop and a lot of what goes with it; speakers, headphones, DVD's. Very sad, as it's difficult now to do emails and blogs, but what makes me even sadder is that (if my theory is correct) the child now knows what to do and came in last Friday and again on Saturday, taking pens, notebooks, my store of cashewnuts and bombay mix! Aaaagh... how will I survive? But I'm more upset that the child is learning a way of life which might grow into something bigger later on.

On Saturday I left the house at 11am and cycled the half hour into town, left my bags with my friends' driver and cycled back to find the third break-in before 12.30. Unfortunately I fell off my bike while in town (silly me) and the bruise began to swell on the way back, making a mighty big bump. My friends were expecting me to come and stay, so I tied it up with a rope to stop the swelling and arrived in a heap and all tied up. They intied me and set me free, administered ibuprofen, icepack and bandages, lots of rest and good food; since then I have been feeling much better. I am staying on a local dairyfarm with Elizabeth Phillips who's husband died three weeks ago, peacefully in his sleep. I think she is glad of a companion now. It's half term break at the secondary school, and the bible school has a month out, so I am resting and recouperating. Wow, do I need it! I've moved my stuff there until we can sort out something more permanent.

School debate

Pictured is a debate for all the secondary students under the gums trees, in the afternoon sunshine!

The language is English, as it is for all lessons except the ones I teach, ie Religious education. A bit ironic, as most other teachers are Tanzanians. I think it's because RE deals with issues close to the heart, so it helps if it is in a 'heart language'. The syllabus is written in Kiswahili, and is very helpful.

In the background you can see the classrooms, a cylindrical rainwater harvesting tank, and the corners of a new classroom being built by a visiting team from a UK school in partnership with St Michael's, Kilolo.

Secondary Students

Here's class 1B of the Secondary School. I teach them for the second double period on a Wednesday morning, after 1A for the first two periods. When tea break is over I go to 2A and then 2B, all double periods. On Thursdays its the same for forms three and four, both with A and B streams. I thought it was going to be much harder then I am finding it so far - maybe I'm still in the honeymoon period. The classes enjoy reading passages from the Old Tesament like Moses and the burning bush, and sometimes I act it out to liven things up. Together with lots of laughter, I hope the amazing message of God's love and mercy is communicating itself.